CLEVELAND, Ohio — A 17-year-old boy killed Sunday afternoon was playing basketball at an elementary school playground shortly before he was gunned down, a witness and family members said.
Devin Price, a student at Invictus High School in Cleveland, was shot about 6:15 p.m. Sunday outside AJ Rickoff Elementary School on East 147th Street and Kinsman Road, police said.
No arrests have been made in the case.
The witness — who did not want to be named — said he, Price and others played basketball Sunday at the playground. They stopped briefly to talk to girls and sat on some playground equipment, he said.
A car pulled into the parking lot off East 147th Street. A man got out of the car, hid behind a slide and opened fire, the witness said.
Price was hit several times in the torso. He was taken to University Hospitals, where he died. The shooter jumped back into a car and sped off, police said.
Friends set up a makeshift memorial with liquor bottles and candles at the playground.
Price is the 15th person to be killed in Cleveland in 2017. He’s also the fourth under 20 years old to be killed this year in the city.
Family members said Monday that Price was a good kid who loved to play baseball, basketball and video games.
“He was like my brother,” said Greg Price, Devin’s 18-year-old cousin. “I’m in denial. I have no respect for anyone who would do that to someone.”
Another cousin, Brittany Price, said Devin wasn’t involved in any gangs and never made trouble.
“He was looking for a job and wanted to play baseball this summer,” she said. “He was just being a kid, playing basketball. For someone to do this is just crazy.”
Shauntianna Jacobs, who lives in the neighborhood, said she saw Price playing basketball but left about an hour before the shooting. Jacobs was shocked when she learned someone had been killed at the park.
“This has to stop,” Jacobs said.
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